"I love that you've brought this to attention. An extensive database of uncommon but resistant and hardy plants/foods could be developed and organized by climate. Ease of growth and processing should also be taken in to account. I will try to…"
A crash course in changing the world.
Child labour & the Evil of Western Racism as well as ancient African Customs and Traditions.
" The horror, the horror."
Kurtz in Conrad's "Heart of Darkness."
Chinua Achebe has pointed out that the heart of darkness is not in Africa but in the hearts of those who consider themselves superior to others - of every race, class, gender, culture, religion, political ideology etc.
Some of the whites, or rather educated and "advanced, progressive" men and women, go to Africa in the guise of offering help. But they mostly end up hindering and not helping, perpetuating customs and traditions that are harmful to the health, well-being and mental and spiritual and emotional development of the women, children, ethnicities and wh*** nations they enter into in their purblind ignorance, implicitly racist unbeknownst to themselves.
Take this case of child labour.
Can you guess who this boy is carrying this plastic 40 pound container of water for?
To and from the house of/for white women who work as peace corps response volunteers.
Do they, the women, find anything wrong with it?
No.
The culture allows it, the inbuilt chauvinism in it .
ILO says a child must only do light work till fifteen,
How much is he paid?
21 US cents an hour for carrying three such containers that will affect his brain, back, spine, neck and legs and no play or study meanwhile...
Oh murder most foul and unnatural!
Is this really 2010 or the Belgian Congo?
My friend Peggie Scott from Liberia, Africa, tells me some horrifying things in two emails regarding this: -
"I think it's important to try to change the root problem, not just fight the symptom. On this issue, I believe, that the root problem is the deeply entrenched chauvinism that is rampant in West Africa. This creates a society of second class citizens who have no or few rights and no or few protectors. Until that mindset is changed a myriad of problems will continue to exist.
One of the things that is most disturbing to me is how easily some people from the West fall into the same mindset when it is convenient for them. Here's a link to a picture of a 12 yr old boy (when I asked the boy how old he was he told me he was 9 years old, but later a PCR volunteer told me he was 12, Hmmmmm) carrying water into the house of the four Peace Corps Response Volunteers. He does this several days a week and carry's 3-4 of these 40 pound containers each time. They were outraged when I told them that what they were doing was both against the law in this country and exceeded the UNICEF guidelines for child labor.
Note: UNICEF defines child labour as work that exceeds a minimum number of hours, depending on the age of a child and on the type of work. Such work is considered harmful to the child and should therefore be eliminated.
Ages 5-11: At least one hour of economic work per week.
Ages 12-14: At least 14 hours of economic work per week
Note: The ILO sets the minimum age for legal employment at 15.
All 4 of the PCR volunteers are women and I believe that is one of the reasons they feel it is okay to hire these boys. They are absolutely not able to carry the water themselves. They also argue that they are helping the local economy. My reply to that was, "Hire their father".
Although Africans have been carrying loads on their heads for more generations than I can imagine, I believe that the introduction of plastic containers (from the West and East) have made it possible to heap even heavier loads onto the heads of children. I do not know, but would like to, what the average weight of a traditional clay water jug is. And I wonder if such young children (I see many 4, 5 and 6 year olds carrying water) would be entrusted with the breakable clay pots.
My roommate once told me a story of two very small boys who were trying to put a large load on the head of the smaller one. Each time they would get the load on his head it would not be balanced and he would fall over from the weight. She said she thought it was, "cute".
I have managed to get the youngest children banned from our water pump. But not because they may be hurting themselves (that reason would never be listened to) but because they might hurt the pump. They are told to go home and get a parent or a bigger brother or sister to pump and carry the water.
Small steps. We make small steps. I trust the Universe to help me make them in the right direction."
Do you still believe ignorance and racism and local chauvinism are dead?
What can we do to change all this?
We need to fight the culture that asks for women and children to carry things on their head.
Sunny Dupree talks of a bucket that she wants to work on that can be pushed and rolled and a push cart that can carry water without spilling it, and meanwhile we also need these children to stop working and get them health care and education instead.
I do not despair.
The heart of darkness in man everywhere will be defeated like my friend believes.
We shall overcome.
By the way, I am in Africa at present.
Views: 237
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Comment by A.V.Koshy on April 27, 2010 at 5:22pm
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now oyure tlaking starling
all the others are only interested in defending themselves maybe
this is the kind of thing htat can really hlep
thanks al ot
ican try and send it to my frined the link at once
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i did it :)
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well not all the others...
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hear hear or as chelsea who is bad as me at typing probably says here, here :)
thanks sarah
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all of them fled sarah so now we are left as usual talking to the air
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Comment by Edwige Lelievre on April 27, 2010 at 6:18pm
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I am still here Ambat :p If I agree that what happened when westeners acting like black children are their slaves is totally unacceptable (and even more from someone working in an NGO, because there are supposed to be here to help) and it is certainly related to racism. But still, everyone is not like that !
So now, let's think about how to change this bad behaviours. Maybe we could contact the NGO they are working with to talk about that, or if they don't want to talk, to display it on the web ? I am not so found about delation, but they should be ashamed of what they do, really.
(and no, I am not so proud to be French ! Come on, do you see French President ? I am just ashamed to be French every time he appears in the media, what is often :D The only thing I am totally chauvinistic is French food :p)
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mak on evoke is doing a project on water called blue gold, edwige
you can find it in http://evokeforever.groupsite.com
and ergarding cracking down o nthem thats exactly what im doing here to begin with
not that they alone are to blame
it's also the wh*** culture
but that doesnt countenance their behavious it's typically colonial and least expected from peace corps volunteers and they think its fine on top of that can you believe that
chris says : "Nevertheless, I am constantly reminded by small-minded racist people that I don't have the good fortune to have been born of Chinese parents and am therefore inferior in all sorts of ways. I can deal with it in my daily life, but I expect a higher standard of perception on Evoke."
how do you think those children feel?
they should have no expectations i guess
that;s only allowed for the educated tech savvy crowd in evoke?
you would get on fine with mak she is a great water visionary
and sarah you never generalized even once
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About colonialism, I have to admit, Koshy, that it still exists. I really think almost no one would hire a child to carry heavy things like that. But the superior feeling, and the idea that we know more things and so have to teach and help is common. Somehow, this idea of helping poor people flatters our occidental pride, but some also do that because they feel guilty of colonization, and so try to repair, and in the end some others help just by generosity : they see they can help someone in need, and so they do that, but they would have done the same for their own people, I think. Some other people come to poor countries to learn too.
That is why I think it is important not to generalize : we shall not to discourage good people to help, because some are bad.
When it is made by the states, I think that it is more about imperialism than colonialism though and not only targeted to poor country (Coca Cola also came to Europe to expand american culture :p)
I have to agree Sarah, Berlusconi and Bush are also frightening (and for Bush, way more powerful, so way more dangerous) I don't know why, but it looks like there is a very high percentage of frightening persons among politicians from all over the world, completely regardless of culture and skin colors ... It is sad that it might be the only thing for which we are all the same. And it is totally off-subject too... (sorry Ampat)
I had no idea that quoting this part of Body Count's lyric could be offending, if so, please let me know !
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Comment by Alberto Cottica on April 27, 2010 at 7:10pm
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Well done. A reference (where was this? when? what are these peace corps volunteers doing? do they have a website? etc.) would add credibility.
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i'm asked to keep it a secret ,the place, but i can tell you the time ,right now, including even today cottica :(
half of it i'm quoting from emails and the person being well known to these volunteers doesn't help
hope i get permission to tlak of place and also the people invovled and the organization from my friend
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